Using British Airways Miles to Fly on Alaska Airlines

British Airways miles are easy to collect. The standard Chase British Airways Visa credit card offers a 50,000 point bonus. With just a single credit card signup bonus you would have enough points for 3 ½ short haul round trips. British Airways is also a transfer partner with all of the credit card points programs including:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards -  1:1 transfer ratio
• American Express Membership Rewards - 250:200 transfer ratio
• Citi Thankyou Points – 1:1 transfer ratio
• Starwood Preferred Guest 1:1 transfer ratio

Between all the programs which offer transferring to British Airways Executive Club, it makes it easy to acquire lots of British Airways miles or Avios as they are called.  Although Alaska Airlines is not part of any of the major airline alliances such as the Star Alliance, OneWorld Alliance, and SkyTeam Alliance; Alaska Airlines is a partner with British Airways.  British Airways has a distance base award chart.

For Economy flights

Distance Miles	Economy
1-650	*4,500
651-1150	7,500
1151-2000	10,000
2001-3000	12,500
3001-4000	20,000
4001-5500	25,000
5501-6500	30,000
6501-7000	35,000
7001 +	50,000

*British Airways removed the 4,500 one way from the North America Award Chart so all flights less than 1,150 miles are 7,500 miles each way.

British Airways is a little different in that they charge per flight segment, so if you are on a one way trip that is two segments of 900 miles each leg, then you would get charge for each leg separately for a cost of 15,000 Avios even though the total trip length is only 1,800 miles which would only be 10,000 Avios if it was a direct flight.

So British Airways Avios are best used for direct flights on Alaska Airlines.  Anchorage to Seattle or Portland costs 10,000 Avios. Anchorage to Hawaii costs just 12,500 Avios one way.  All intra Alaska flights cost 7,500 Avios one way.

To book an award on Alaska Airlines usingBritish Airways Avios you have to call British Airways (800) 452-1201. You cannot book Alaska Airlines awards on the British Airways site. First you will want to check availability. To do this is simple. Use Alaska Airlines website and search award travel. If there is an award seat available at the Saver Award (or lowest award level) then there should be availability for British Airways to book for you.  You can also use American Airlines website and search award travel. If American Airlines has award availability then so will British Airways.

I have used British Airways Avios to fly all over Alaska. In the last 2 years I have used British Airways Avios to score more than 10 round trip tickets on Alaska Airlines. I live in Anchorage and have family in both Kodiak and Juneau. When I use 15,000 Avios round trip I average over 2.2 cents per point value. This is really a great value as round trip flights usually hover around $350-$450.